The present invention relates to a blood-vessel tester for inspecting the degree of clearness or unobstructedness inside a blood vessel as well as the blood flow therein.
After an operation for vascular transplantation has been performed on a human body, it is a common practice to inspect to determine whether or not the sutured parts of the operated blood vessels are uncontracted and whether or not the above blood vessels are unobstructed, so as to learn whether or not the postoperative course is uneventful.
If, for instance, there is any contraction or obstruction in the coronary artery, angina pectoris or myocardial infarction will occur. In one of the methods of treating such a disease, an operation is performed which connects a bypass blood vessel at one end thereof to the coronary artery and at the other end thereof to the aorta by anastomosis so that the bypass blood vessel may share the blood flow with the coronary artery. In this case, the postoperative condition of the patient depends mainly upon the degree of clearness inside the bypass blood vessel and the blood flow rate therein; therefore, it is indispensable for such an operation as above to inspect the degree of clearness inside the bypass blood vessel and the blood flow rate therein. The method heretofore adopted for this purpose is to insert a catheter into a peripheral artery either exposed or tapped through the skin under a locally anesthetized condition and then to introduce the catheter into the bypass blood vessel while transfusing a contrast medium into the blood for X-ray photography. This method is reliable in that it can directly observe the condition of blood flow; however, it has disadvantages in that it is low in sensitivity with respect to the degree of clearness inside the blood vessel and to the blood flow rate, it requires complicated techniques for operation, it cannot be performed without risk, it cannot be performed repeatedly because it gives mental and physical pain to the patient, and it requires great expense.